Knot tier



Feb. 14, 1939. v .E J ABBOTT 2,146,713

' r KNOT TIER Filed Feb. 12, 1936 3 sheets-sheet 2 I Feb. 14, '1939. E.J ABBoTT I I 2,146,713

KNOT TIER Filed Feb. 12, 1936 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 a Jazzy;

E l -w-- x- 1a4 /il ae held or operated by\hand, the invention attainsits fullest utility as embodied in a mech- Patented Feb. 14, 1939 UNITEDSTATES PATENT OFFICE.

bott Machine Company, Wilton, p poration of New Hampshire N. H., a. cor-Application February 12, 1936, Serial No. 63,540

anism for automatically uniting new supply bobbins to the yam packagesin a winding machine. By way of example the invention is hereinillustrated and described as applied to a bobbin magazine and feedingmechanism associated with automatic package-end finding mechanism suchas described in the patent application of Edward J. Abbott and JosephRing, for Winding machine, Serial No. 726,524, filed May 19,

Among the several objects of the invention is to provide an improved andmore compact and simple knotter mechanism and particularly, although notexclusively, such a knotter mechanism of the kind having' twocooperating tying bills. A further object is to improve and simpiify themechanism which acts to cross and guide the strands during the formationof the knot, the' mechanism-which strips or pulls off the knot from thetying mechanism and tightens the knot, and the mechanism for operatingthese parts in timed relation. A further object is to 4 provide improvedmechanism for initiating the actuation of a knotter, preferably in timedrelation to the operation of means for causing strands to be presentedthereto for tying. Another object is to provide an improved andsimplified driving mechanism adapted to act very quickly but inareliable manner to rotate the knotter through the required cycle ofoperation and stop and-hold the knotter in position ready for its nextoperation. It will be understood that when embodied in automatic windingmachines, the speed with which the knotter performs its function is ofimportance, since in large measure it determines the number of windingunits on which the automatic tying mechanism can act in a given time,and hence the number of winding units which can economicaily be tendedby the same knotter.

Other objects of invention and features of advantage and utility will beapparent from this specification and its drawings wherein the inventionis explained by way of example. Many of the features of this inventionclaimed herein are also applicable to and shown as embodied in themechanisms disclosed in the application of Edward J. Abbott for patenton Automatic winder, Serial No. 63,542, and in the application of EdwardJ. Abbott for patent on Knotter, 8e-

rial No. 63,541, both filed concurrently herewith. v

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view, partly in section, of a rotary magazine for anautomatic winder, showing a knotter mounted on the central suctioncolumn which holds the ends of strand in the magazine;

Fig. 2 is a view-taken on a vertical plane, partly in section and partlyin elevation, with certain parts broken away, showing the knotter,magazine and suction Conduit of Fig. 1, and the mechanism for operatingthe knotter from the motion of the rotary magazine;

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the knotter, with the cover for theknotter cam removed;

Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the yarn-guiding plate of the knotter,showing the yam-crossing mechanism and knot-stripping arm mounted;thereon;

Fig. 5 is a plan view of the knotter with the the cover for the knottercam removed;

Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken on line 6-6 of Fig. 5, showing a platedisposed in position ent application of Edward `J. Abbott and Joseph E.Ring for winding machine, Serial No. 726,524, filed May 19, 1934. Alsoas disclosed in a patent application of Edward J. Abbott for Automaticwinder, Serial No. 63,542, filed concurrently with the presentapplication and disclosing many of the features of the presentapplication, the invention of the present application is useful in atraveling magazine adapted to repienish the bobbin holders of Stationarywinding units of a multiple winding machine.

Referring particularly to Figs. 1 and 2, there is illustrated a centralsuction tube 14 within which the air is maintained under a 'reducedpressure by any suitable exhauster. One end of a slotted ,tube 15extends within and is spaced from the inner wall of tube 14 by asuitable spacer member 16, and the other end of slotted tube 15terminates in a suitable end-finding nozzie, indicated at 'I'I, close toan unwinding roll HB, such as the rolls shown in the applicationsreferred to ab'ove, the action of these parts be.. ing to find the endof strand on a package P !25 later described.

A plate 91 rotatable about tube 18 forms the support for a series ofcylindrical bobbin holders 98, each slotted at 99 and provided with abottom trapdocr !00. Any suitable means for. rotating and controllingthe magazine may be provided.'

for example a rotary disk !05, constantly driven through its internalgear teeth !01 from a suitably driven pinion !08, the plate 91 beingrestrained and controlled by latch and tripping mechanism such asdisclosed in the above-mentioned application for patent on Automaticwinder and thereby timed to rotate the magazine through anarccorresponding to one bobbin holder 98 each time a new winding unit isencountered. Bobbins of replenishment strand are held in the bobbinholders 98, and the ends of strand of these bobbins are held by suctionin the tube 14. Rotation of the magazine brings the replenishmentstrands successively to the knotter !25, a replenishment strand arrivingat the knotter at the same time that the tube delivers to the knotter afound end of strand of the package of a winding unit.

Arim i! 2 on a stationery flange I! 0 supports the trapdoors !00 oi' thebobbin holders 98 but terminates at a point opposite to the knotter !25,there allowing the trapdoor !00 to drop to a vertical position anddischarge the replenishment bobbin which has been tied by the knotter tothe found end of strand. 4

Referring particularly to Figs. 3 to 7 inclusive, the knotter !25 hereinillustrated preferably is arranged and constructed to tie the knotdescribed in United States Letters Patent No. 1,965,023, namely a knotin which each of a pair of strands is formed into a knot around only onethickness of the other strand, the two such single knots being drawntogether so as to reinforce each other against displacement of thecombined knot by tension in the united strand. Certain aspects of theinvention are not limited to the tying of that kind of knot, and certainclaims oi.' this application are generic to the mechanism of the patentapplication of Edward J. Abbott for Knotter, Serial No. 63,541, filedconcurrently herewith.

As illustrated in Figs. 3 and 5, the knotter includes a U-shaped framemember 200 on the side elements 202 of which there are mounted a maindrive shaft !31 and a pair oi" coaxial rotary tying bilis !30, 3!connected by gearing !33, !34 and !85, !36 so as to be rotated by theshaft !31. This main shaft !31 carries a. notched friction plate !38contacted by friction material !40 (Pig. 1) on the face of a rotarydrive element !39 which is pressed against the plate !38 by a springi4!. The rotary drive element !39 is constantly driven through gearteeth !42 on its periphery (Fig. 2) by a train of gearing !49. m, !45from the shatt !48 of an electric motor !28. The knot tier and motor !28are conveniently supported by a bracket !21 mounted on the suction tube14.

A pivotally mounted latch !41 normally engages the notched plate !38 andrestrains it and the knotter shaft !91 against rotary movement by theconstantly running driving motor' !28, the

latch !41 restraining the shaft !31 at such a position that the bilis!30, i3! and other movable the notched plate !38 and permitting thisplate and the knotter shaf!: !31 to be turned through one revolution bythe knotter-driving mechanism.

Upon the conclusion of one revolution of the shaft !31, which producestwo full revolutions oi.' the bilis and l3l, the latch !81 drops intoengagement with the shoulder of the notched plate !38 therebyrestraining the knotter parts against movement past their initial orstarting position shown in Figs. 3 and 5. The continuous i'rictionaleifect oi.' the i'riction material of driving disk !39 upon the plate!38 insures that the knotter parts will be held in their initialposition. ready to receive the next pair of strands to be united.

A side plate !80, associated with the U-shaped frame element 200, servesas a guide and positioning member for the pairs of strands to be united.One strand, from a replenishment bobbin in one of the bobbin holders 98,is slid by the rotary movement of the magazine along a smooth uppersurface i8!! of the plate !80 until it drops into a. slot !99 adjacenttothe bill !30, and the other strand of the pair is laid by the suctiontube 15 into a second slot !91 adjacent to 'the bill i3! and in spacedrelation to the strand in slot !99. Each of these slots !99 and !91 isrounded at its mouth to facilitate the' entrance of its strand..

A further guide member i8! on the opposite side of the bilis' upon theslots !99, !91, is shaped to cooperate therewith in holding the strandsin position for tying. This guide member i8! is in the form of a metalstrip of which the side edges diverge from a top point !98 to a pair ofshoul- .ders !88, !84 beneath which the strands are adapted to thread,and which act to hold the strands down in position for tying.

The strand-crossing mechanism which arranges the strands for tying isshown in Fig. 4

as including a pocket !88' carried by a member !85 which is pivoted totheplate !80 at !88, and a pocket !58 carried by a link !81 which isslotted at !89 so as to slide cn the pivot !88. A pin i9!, fast onmember !85 and engaging in a slot !92 in link !81 acts to swing member|88 'in a clockwise direction about the pivot !88 when link 81 isshifted to the left. A lever !82, pivoted to the plate !80 at i8! isconnected at its upper end by a pivot !88 to link !81 and carries a camfollower !83 which engages a cam groove !81 in a cylindrical cam I 58which is fast on the main shaft !31. The cam groove !81 is so shapedthat one revolution of the main shaft initially crosses the strands inthe path of the bilis. then, after the crossed strands have been pickedup by the bilis, returns the pockets !88' and !88 to their initialpositions of Figs. 3, 4, and 5 while the bilis are making their firstrevolution, and retains the pockets in this position throughout theremainder of the knot-tying cycle.

Each bill !38, i3! is provided with the usual fixed blades, and alsowith a pivoted clamplng shear blade, !30' and !3! respectively, bestshown in Figs. 5 and 7. Pivoted blade !38' is pull-oii arm quickly tothe dotted position oi' Pig.

provided with cam-follower extensions !so and 130 'adapted to engage astationary cam strip 40, and pivoted blade lal is provided withcamfollower extensions is!!' and |3| adapted to engage a Stationary camstrip ll, the effect' ot these cams and cam-followers being to open thepivoted blades as the bills point downwardly and to close the blades asthe bills turn from a down-' ward position to the position of Flg. 3.

The manner of tying the knot in the crossed strands will be'apparentfrom the aforementioned United States Letters Patent No. 1,965,023andneed not be further discussed herein except to -point out that the billsturn in the direction of the arrow X inAFig. 6 and that at the end ofapproximately three-quarters of a revolution of the bilis, as indicatedin Fig. '7, the bills are swinging upwardly and are each carrying acomplete loop of one strand which has also been bent about the oppositebill and a bend or partial loop of the other strand which has also beenformed into a complete loop about the .opp site bill. Thus both strandsextend across between the two bilis, as indicated in Fig. 7, and the twoportions of strand destined to become the knot tails are about to bepicked up between the fixed and pivoted blades of the bilis, to beclamped and severed. Further rotary movement of the bills through about90 from the position of Fig. 7 to the initial position of Figs. 3 andwill result in the knot tail portions being clamped and severed. At thestage represented by Flg. 7, the two portions of the strands destined toform the tails of the knot are still engaged under the shoulders I 83,l84 of the guide member I8I, and are under the tension lmparted to themby the suction in the tube 14.

As the pivoted blades close, it is desirable to prevent the tension inthe strand and the rotary movement of the bills fromprematurely castingoii. the knot-formation which has been set up in the form of Fig. 7.Moreover, it will appear from g tending portions are near the tips ofthe bills the knot tail portions will be cut off close to them, whereasif these laterally extending portions are close to the axis of rotationof the bills, the knot tail portions will be cut longer. The presentinvention preferably provides a guard member 43 extending from the guideelement |8 in between the bills in a part of their rotary movement, thusto provide a curved, a generally arcuate edge 44 upon which the twolaterally extending portions of strand can run, and which therebyprevents the premature casting ofi of the knot-formation and alsodetermines the position of these laterally extending portions withreference to the bill axis and so regulates or determines the lengths ofthe tail portions of the knot. As indicated in Fig. 6, the guard element43 terminates at a point a little past the upright position of thebilis, so as to permit the knot-formation to be pulled ofl? the billstoward the side opposite to the guide member I Ol. V

A knot-stripping or pull-off arm Hi0 is shown as pivoted at !93 to theplate lao so as to operate in a plane substantially parallel thereto,and earries a cam follower ISI which engages a cam groove I 59 in thecam !56. The shape of cam groove |59 is such as to keep the pull-off armISO idle in approximately its full-line position of Figs. 3 and 4 untilalmost the end of the first full revolution of the hills, and then tolift the 4, pulling the formed knot of! the billsover the temporarilyclamped tail portions thereof, and then restoring the pull-off arm toits !u'll-line position during the following idle movement oi! thehills.

It will be understood that the pull-off arm, acting on the main portionsof the two knotted strands, tends to pull the knot together and tightenit. In this operation of tightening the knot, the present inventionprovides for spreading the main 'portions of the two strands materiallytarther apart than their relatively close relation which they occupiedin the slots !91 and !99, so as to increase the angle between them andthe efifectiveness with which tension in the strands pulls the parts ofthe knot together. 'Thus, the pullofi 'arm Hi0 is shown as provided witha 'humped portion Hill adapted to enter in between the two strands andhaving downwardly slanting sides, with the efiect of exerting a cammingaction on the-two strands such as to spread them and increase the anglebetween them as they are lifted out of the slots 191 and les. The resultof this action is to pull the portions of the knot together morepositively and securely than would be the case if, in tightening, thestrands were maintained in about the relative positions determined bythe slots |9`l and !99.

It should be understood that the present disclosure is for the purposeof illustration only and that this invention includes all modificationsand equivalents which fall within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

l. A knot tier having therein a pair of rotary bills, means forreceiving and holding'separately two strands respectively at one side ofeach bill, and guide means for the strands on the other side of eachbill, said guide means including shoulder portions beneath which thestrands can lie whereby to retain the strands in operative relation tothe bills.

2. A knot tier having therein a pair of rotary bills, means forreceiving and holding separately two strands respectively at one side ofeach bill, and a divider element located at the other side of each billin position to keep the 'strands separate, said divider element havingshouiders adapted to retain the strands in operative relation to thehills.

3. A strand-uniting mechanism having therein a pair of rotary bills, asmooth guiding element along which one strand is adapted to slide towardthe path of rotation of one bill, the knotter being provided with a slotinto which said strand is adapted to drop in position to be acted on bythe last-mentioned bill, and means *for receiving and holding anotherstrand separately from the aforesaid strand, and crossing mechanismoperating on the two separate strands in conjunction with the bilis.

4. A strand-uniting mechanism having therein loop-forming andstrand-severing means, means for automatically delivering pairs ofstrands to the loop-forming and strand-severing means, means forreceiving and holding separately the two strands thus delivered, andmeans operating in timed relation to the loop-forming and strandseveringmeans to cross the two separately held r strands.

' 5. A strand uniting mechanism including a rotary tying bill mechanism,means for automatically delivering pairs of. strands separately to thetying bill mechanism, means for` receiving and for knotting by therotation of the bilis, and

means for rotating the bilis to form a knot in the strands. a V

TI. A knot tier having therein a pair of cooperating rotary bilis eachincluding means for severing a strand, means for holding two strands tobe knotted by said 'bilis, and means for pulling the two strands totighten the knot formed by the bilis, said pulling means including a camelement shaped to spread the main portions oi the; two

'strands apart during the action of the said pulling means.

8. A knot tier having therein a pair of bilis rotatable about a commonaxis, a main driving shaft parallel with the axis of rotation of thebilis, driving connections from the shaft to the' bilis, a side platestationarily mounted with respect to the axis of rotation of said bills,strandcrossing linkage, a pull-off arm mounted on said side plate tomove in planes substantially parallel to said plate, and cam means onsaid shaft for operating the strand-'crossing linkage and pull-oii! arm.I

9. A knot tier having therein a pair of bilis rotatable about a commonaxis, a main driving shaft parallel with the axis of rotation of thebilis, driving connections from the shaft to the bilis, a side platestationarily mounted with respect to the axis of said bilis, a pull-offarm pivotaliy mounted on the side plate, and cam means for operatingsaid arm from said shaft.

10. strand-crossing mechanism having therein a pair of bilis rotatableabout a common axis, means for arranging the strands in the paths ofsaid bilis so that each bill in rotating forms a loop of a strand whichis bent about the opposite bill, and a guide element between the bilisin a part of their path of rotation acting on the parts of strandsextending across from one bill to the other to define their positionswith relation to the axis of rotation of the bilis.

11. strand-uniting mechanism having therein a knotter including anactuating shait therefor, a constantly moving driving member. meanshaving frictional engagement with the constantly moving driving memberfor imparting its movement to the knotte'r-actuating shaft, and meansfor restraining the knotter shaft from rotation, said last-named=meansbeing releasabie to permit the knotter shaft to be rotated. x v

12. strand-uniting mechanism having therein a knotter including anactuating shait therefor, a constantly moving driving member, meanshaving .frictional engagement with the constantly moving driving memberfor imparting its movement to the knotter-actuating shait, and a latchadapted to cooperate with said last-named means to stop its rotation atthe end of one revolution,

whereby tripping the' latch causes the knotter shaft to be rotated onerevolution and then stop.

13. A knotter having therein a U-shaped frame member, a main shaftmounted in the side elements oi' said U-shaped 'frame member, a pair ofrotary bilis mounted one in each of said side elements and directedtoward one another, means for driving the bilis from the shaft, a.'plate mounted perpendicular to said side elements, strand-crossingmechanism and a pull-oii' arm mounted on the plate, and cam means onsaid shaft for operating the strand-crossing mechanism and pull-oil arm.

14. A knotter having therein a main shaft, a pair of rotary bilis,gearlng between the bilis and shaft adapted to rotate the bilis two fullrevolutions during one revolution of the shaft, strand-crossingmechanism and a pull-oi! arm, and cam means rotated by said shaft tolmpart p a single cycle of operation to said crossing mechanism andpull-oii arm during one revolution of the shaft, whereby at the end ofone full revolution of the shait the bilis, crossing mechanism andpuil-ofi arm are in the same position as before said revolution of theshaft.

i5. A knotter having therein a main shaft, a pair of rotary bilis,gear-ing between the bilis and 'shaft adapted torotate the bilis twofull revolutions during one revolution of the shaft, strandcrossingmechanism and a .pull-off arm, cam means rotated by said shaft to imparta. single cycle of operation to said crossing mechanism and pull-oil.'arm during one revolution of the shaft, whereby at the end of one fullrevolution of the shaft the bilis, crossing mechanism and pull-ofi armare in the same position as before said revolution of the shaft, andmeans for detaining the shaft against further revolution at the end ofone full revolution.

EDWARD J. ABBOTT.

